Just Another Day

Monday mornings are always full of plans for the week.

What shall I make for dinner tonight and the next four nights? Oh yes, remember to send David a reminder about making plans for Srinagar. Send Daniel a copy of his tax information. Oh my! My son now does his own taxes, bless him! Investigate our United Airline miles that we must use. Take care of that pesky club bill which has now morphed into a monster issue.

Thank all the thousand Indian gods for yoga at 10:20 this morning.

After an hour, I have all these to do items safely tucked away in my mind and I face my week with renewed energy, reclaimed calm, and a silent resolve to cross those items off my list as though to clear all the toxins out of my system. Ommm....

I head to Choco La for lunch. Choco La is the one safe, predictable, and usually pleasant little cafe that shields me from the chaos outside its doors.

But here is where the turmoil begins. Three young women chat animatedly, occupying my favorite spot. Ommm...no worries, even I can be generous and forgiving after my hour of cleansing breaths at yoga.

I choose a little table for two by the window. Spanish book and dictionary on the table, I begin to tackle my “deberes." As I look up from my books, I realize they are doing major repair work on the ceiling just behind me. They've opened up the ceiling exposing dark and scary places where lurks vicious little critters that I am certain are set to jump out of the darkness on to my feta cheese bruschetta!

Back to the three young women out for brunch. They each have two children in tow, perhaps seven to nine years of age. The kids have been set loose in the cafe, running back and forth, screeching in their high pitched kids' voices, scurrying around gathering pillows here and depositing them there while their mothers chat blissfully unaware (I suspect that they are inured to the chaos their children create) that their cute little monsters have shattered my morning calm and serenity.

Still determined to hold on to my peace in spite of being swallowed up in this very high decibel room, I walk to the other side of the cafe, my back turned away from the repair work and my ears determined to ignore the children's noise and upheaval. I am hopeful.

I am generally an observant sort. At times, I wish I could learn to focus only on what is in front of me. Not this morning it seems. The repair work, the noisy children, and now this woman at the next table busily performing her private ablutions as though she were sitting in her boudoir! Bas, bas, bas! Too much for today!

You know those pesky little survey cards restaurants push in front of you at bill paying time? I have filled up those cards countless times hoping that one day, a restaurant manager will actually heed my words and make my day just that little bit brighter. But that day has not come, at least not at Choco La. Once again, the sweeper promenades past me with his wet and disgusting mop! Sweeper number two passes me leisurely with his green bucket heading to the restroom for patrons. ¡Que asqueroso!

The chatting mothers are finally finished and have once again invaded my space, their unruly children following them. They choose breads, inspecting every little cake and treat while their children pass by my table putting my cous cous and vegetable soup in danger of being upended and spilled. There is drilling on the other send of the cafe while Il Divo blares in the background. Those poor chaps have been singing non-stop for three weeks now! Next time I fill up that survey form, I will strongly suggest they give Il Divo a rest!

Never have I ever been surer that pushing back and trying to buck the system will not work here in India. After all, there are 1.2billion of them and only one of me! Insurmountable odds!

Yet, there is inspiration and hope! Angieji, my German angel, has eight years in India under her belt. I have watched her in action challenging all status quos, speaking out against all that is unreasonable. She is a picture of charm at cocktail parties but at any other time is a true German soldier, never giving up any good fight! Full of wisdom, full of courage, she faces India squarely, looks it in the eye and bends this mighty world to her will and at the end of it all, comes out smiling and truly reveling in the wonder that is India.

India is a world of contradictions you say? So true, so true, but perhaps then I too must be a contraction? After this morning, I too will be wiser, fighting, yielding, battling, relenting, and keeping myself at an even keel. In the end, I will be victor over the challenges I have chosen to face and be at peace with the battles I have chosen to forgo.

Contradiction vs contradiction: both sides winners, both sides happy!

Perhaps that is the only way.